As we start up my daughter's tank, she is anxious to add coral and eventually fish. She asked me when is it safe to start adding livestock, and honestly, I drew a BLANK! It has been a LONG time since I have started a tank from scratch, and, to be honest, not sure of the current best practice.

When I set up my current tank about 5 1/2 years ago, it was with established liver rock, new water, and was supplemented with BioSpira. I literally added the rock, BioSpira, coral, and fish -- partially due to an emergency situation, it literally happened over a 2 hour period. And everything thrived. No losses.

Practices in this hobby change rapidly. Thought I would query the masses to see what is new in tank start-up philosophies.

  • What is your thinking on when you add your first coral?
  • Are you old school, buying mollies or damsels to cycle the tank?
  • Or get skimmer gunk from someone's tank, toss it in your setup, then wait until ammonia hits 0 before adding livestock?
  • Do you buy something to establish the tank, like BioSpira or something else?


thx!